“Bunny slippers remind me of who I am. You can’t get a swelled head if you wear bunny slippers. You can’t lose your sense of perspective and start acting like a star or a rich lady if you keep on wearing bunny slippers. Besides, bunny slippers give me confidence because they’re so jaunty. They make a statement; they say, ‘Nothing the world does to me can ever get me so far down that I can’t be silly and frivolous.’ If I died and found myself in Hell, I could endure the place if I had bunny slippers.” ~ Dean Koontz

Another person who never fails to remind me of who I am is my friend, Blunt, who you see in these photos. He is more like a crappy little brother than anything else. He called the other night to ask me what I was up to and I said I was testing a new bed from Cory Edo while wearing bunny slippers.

He tp’d in and pushed me over, stretching out on the bed while a pair of boxers rezzed on him. We found the poses in the bed could be independently chosen for the single poses, so he mimicked whatever pose I chose. “Nice slippers,” he snorted. “And what’s with the pajamas? You’re not fooling anyone—you are hardly wild.”

I pouted. “Bonadea made these and she’s selling them in like 5 different animal skins. And she made me special bunny slippers cuz I wanted them. The jammies normally come with bear slippers and a bear.”

He ignored me, of course, and continued to click on the bed, changing all the pillow colors, the bed itself, the ottoman top. “This is cool! I can change all the pillow colors!”

He clicked through some more. “This thing has couples poses too,” he grinned. Don’t let the above photo fool you. While we were in this seeming romantic pose, he was threatening to let a big gob of saliva drop on me while he had me held down. (Just goes to show things are not always as they seem.)

I had a nice skin from Aida Ewing on, and I had been admiring how cute I was before he came in to hassle me. Luckily I had this ponytail from Queue Marlowe on—mesh, don’tcha know. He can’t mess it up (though he DID pull on it).

Holocluck Henly IM’d me to ask about sideburns. Turns out Holo is picky (like every other man in SL… grrr) and we went on quite a hunt for sideburns. It turned out to be very comical as we ended up in his.. holodeck with a Gorean warrior trying to fashion sideburns amid Holo’s many trophies. Only in SL…

Along the hunt I ended up in Cutea Benelli’s incredible store. She just keeps adding and adding, and it’s home to the most fascinating content to be found in SL. Amid the Victorian frocks, the cyber creatures, the old man skins, I found this fun, fresh patchwork dress for a pretty summer day. Click, I bought it, and promptly forgot about Holoclucks’s sideburns.

This sleek ponytail with bangs from MissAllSunday Lemon is a perfect match to the dress. In fact, this would work well under the hat that comes with the dress because of its low profile. Consider this hair for all your hat needs. A fresh pretty skin from Tricky Boucher, sparkling eyes from Ikon Innovia, and it’s summer! (And thanks, Kristopher Walpole, my new DJ friend, for your song suggestion!)

Says a prayer as she’s kissed by ocean mist
Takes herself to the sand and dreams

Esperanza Spalding took a poem by William Blake and set it to music. Regular readers of my blog know how much I admit her work and how awed I am by her talent. This song is the actual poem set to music and if you click through, you will be amazed too.

And it’s the perfect song for a summer outfit like this one, a song for summer play. I mix a lot of mesh in this outfit—first LeeZu Baxter’s newest blouse that comes with a sheer component or totally opaque. I like how LeeZu is pushing what mesh can do without worrying about waiting for the deformer, which is what I guessed the most innovative designers in SL would do and LeeZu has. She carefully works around the limitations of mesh as it is now, finding opportunities for new design ideas. I love the colors on this top but also her able engineering of the textures on the mesh. My skirt is also a great mesh piece from charming Meiler with well done folds and textures that bring the mesh to life.

My skin is one of moon Meiyo’s newest—a sweet simple skin with a very pretty and neutral makeup. Sometimes in the summer you don’t want a lot—just enough to bring a bloom into my look. My hair with hat is fabulous, isn’t it? Onyx LeShelle brings her mesh skills to hair this time with this big floppy hat (with great color change hud) and wind-blown locks. She always throws a curve in there—this time wisps escaping in the wind (as I hold my hat down).

If thought is life And strength and breath And the want Of thought is death;

Like this:

I have been listening to the “50 Shades of Grey” series on Audible while I am at work. I had to find out what I keep reading about and hearing—yes, I will sway to popular culture if it’s that big a deal. A friend suggested it, then Katie Roiphe wrote about it, then I heard the rather chaste ladies in my women’s club talking about it. I had to see what the hubbub was about!

Let me say I find the text nearly unreadable. I previewed it on my Kindle and couldn’t get past the first two pages. It could have used a good editor. Therefore, I opted to listen to it on Audible while at work so I could save myself the pain of tripping over the tortured diction (metaphorical pun intended).

Nevertheless, the characters are provocative, albeit a bit cliched. The plot is definitely compelling. I opted to blog a look for Elena Lincoln, Christian’s former domme and lover. Now his business partner, she is tall cold blondeness, elegant, mannerful, and a little bit controlling and domineering (go figure). When I saw these amazing mesh pieces at Pixivor Allen’s store, I realized I could outfit Elena perfectly.

Pixivor has outdone herself on these pieces (which are priced relatively reasonably). The mesh ruffled top is the epitome of representation with a rich sheen to the bodice and a sheer quality to the ruffles. She even has little black buttons running down the placket. The skirt, with its beautifully rounded booty (because that is sexy, darn it) shapes perfectly as a pencil skirt with a ruffled hem. The look is chic and courant, purely Parisian and a logical piece from a French designer like Pixivor.

My shoes are from Redgrave, made in collaboration between Maris Kanto and Emilia Redgrave (and undoubtedly others in that team). Using an updated version of the Kalnin’s hud, the ankle can be color matched to the avatar’s skin through a series of clicks. Additionally, the toe, vamp and heel can have combos of color. This elegant shoe, with its scripted color combinations, will serve many different looks.

I chose Tricky Boucher’s offering at Fairy Tales in 2012—the Evil Queen skin. The name alone was perfect for this character but also the look of the skin—absolutely beautiful, flawless and sparked with passionate color. I realize the incongruence of the dark brow with the light hair but I didn’t care bceause it all fit together so perfectly. The hair is MissAllSunday Lemon’s offering at Fairy Tales in 2012—a short bob with perfectly shaped locks—a perfect style for one like Mrs. Lincoln, who co-owns with Christian, several beauty salons. Her manicured red nails from Jin Elfan also fit the character.

Egoisme has debuted this beautiful dress, a combination of system pieces, mesh and flexi, as part of their new couture line. Ramses Meredith is gathering some of the best designers in SL under his broad wings so he can provide a full-service business for avatar outfitting. Lady Stromfeld and Ramses worked on this sumptuous ball gown together, and it’s a partnership of beauty. With its gorgeous rippling brocade on flexis combined with an integrated mesh bodice and sculpty trim. This is how mesh should work—the outfit should not be about mesh as the thing itself but about the outfit itself with mesh, sculpty and flexi all employed to their best advantage to achieve an end result.

I show one of Queue Marlowe’s first releases in mesh. After considerable work and swearing, Queue has come out with two styles, very much in her aesthetic, with full sexy body and gloriously highlighted textures. In Queue’s defense on the appearance of this, I goofed on my photo taking and forgot my face shot. Even pixelated, Queue’s hair looks damn good.

Like this:

The good thing about seeing performances at SL9B is that you will chance on some DJs and musicians you may never have heard in Second Life before. Today Kristopher Walpole played on the stage I was managing, and I had a most blissful afternoon listening to him sing his original music and covers. He is all that and a bag of chips (and he sang Joni Mitchell—be still my heart). His voice is absolutely wonderful. I am smitten.

That being said, I acted highly uncool and got all fan girlish. I gave him fashion tips (“You’re missing a boot”) and then I pointed out that he had tape on his glasses. Really, Harper, can you be more dorky? He was very gracious—undoubtedly women do this all the time.

I was wearing this dress because I had put it together for a blog. The dress is a fantastic gift from a new club called “The Nest.” Go there, enjoy the great music and atmosphere and the friendly folks, and grab this beautiful dress. The hosts, Mr. and Mrs. O will welcome you with open arms and great dancing.

Again I show Tricky Boucher’s newest skin, which has his signature soft yet realistic look. This time I wore one of the many lipsticks included to brighten up my appearance, though these eyes could stand a neutral.

I wanted to go less traditional with my hair—who said you always have to have an updo with a gown, especially when the gown is as sexy as this one? MissAllSunday Lemon’s mesh short haircut here with its assymetrical cut gives a bit of grit to this look.

Also giving a new twist to this look is AvaGardner Kungler’s artistic and intricate jewelry. I always love to see whatever new thing Ava has invented—it is never traditional and never ever boring but it’s also not so ostentatious it can’t be worn. She evokes natural shapes—the graceful symmetry of insects, the sensuous drop of water off a petal, the shimmering movement of breaths of wind on fronds. She pushes past replicating RL jewelry to making something uniquely new.

Oh I could drink a case of you darling
Still I’d be on my feet
oh I would still be on my feet

I have been doing Stage Manager duties at SL9B to help out Trouble and Loon this year so I figured I needed a more gritty look for such duties. Even though Doc insists we have to wear the t-shirts, I think the venue is just too hot for that, so I opted for this retro halter top from Antonia Marat and finely-made capris from Aleida Rhode (who is, incidentally, closing up shop soon to focus more steadily on her studies—good luck, Aleida!). Mesh boots from Gutterblood Spoonhammer complete the look, giving it the necessary Wastelands edge I want.

Tiffy Vella made these brilliant 50s glasses for a more retro look but I donned them for their intricacy and cool. With a color changing script in them, they provide an infinite variety of configurations between the lens, frame, pearls, and scrolls. I am sorry to say they cover some of Tricky Boucher’s newest lovely skin with its red hair brows and cat eyes. I will show more in subsequent blogs—I promise.

“Every woman is a rebel, and usually in wild revolt against herself.” ~ Oscar Wilde